The Meat Crisp

An unlikely solution to Britain’s spiralling obesity problem could soon hit the supermarket shelves: the meat crisp.   

Rather than tucking into a bag of potato crisps, consumers will be encouraged to dip their hand into a packet of crisps made of pulverised beef or turkey crisps. Thin, crunchy, high in protein and low in fat, the bizarre invention is being developed in a laboratory in North Yorkshire as a healthy alternative to a bag of fatty cheese and onion flavoured crisps.
The plans have been revealed in documents filed at the Intellectual Property Office, formerly known as the Patent Office. They have been submitted by Cranswick, one of Britain’s biggest food companies, which supplies marinated meats for the Jamie Oliver brand.
Bernard Hoggarth, the chief executive of the company, said: “Instead of snacking on a beef-flavoured crisp, which is deep-fried in oil, I’d rather have a piece of actual beef. Yes, it’s a bit blue-sky thinking but I think it could take off – after all, people are happy to snack on Parma ham.”
The application for the patent lays out the ingredients and method of creating this novel idea. The raw meat is pulverised and mixed with an emulsion. Then seasoning is added along with a range of binding agents – egg albumin, k-carrageenan, and lipophilic modified starches are all listed as possible ingredients – and the concoction is heated gently in a wrapper before being sliced into thin pieces and then microwaved to make them crispier.
Mr Hoggarth said packaging would be key to ensuring the product had a long shelf life and persuading consumers to eat crispy slices of pulverised meat.
“We envisage selling these in Pringle-style tubes, with the crisps stacked up,” he said.
The documents suggest the beef crisp would have 399 calories per 100g, substantially lower than the 540 calories per 100g for most potato crisps.
They would also have 8.1g of fat, compared with about 18g in potato crisps. The salt content would also be lower than standard crisps.
Experts in the food industry said they were intrigued by the idea and saw no reason why they could not take off with young men, many of whom tuck into spicy, dried sausages, such as the Pepparami brand.
Ed Bedington, the editor of the Meat Trades Journal, said: “The success or failure of this will depend on how they market it. I’m not convinced it will work as a premium health snack, but there is a huge appetite for meat snacking products.
“And people eat parsnip or beetroot crisps, so why not a beef crisp. I’d try it.”
Mr Hoggarth said if the final testing in the companies laboratories were successful, the crisps were likely to hit the shops at the end of this year or early next year.

Read More At: Telegraf.co.uk